Palestinians

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli teenager was critically wounded when an anti-tank missile hit a school bus near the Gaza border, and Israel responded today with airstrikes on Gaza that killed at least one Palestinian.
The cross-border violence was the latest increase in tension between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, and raised fears of a new cycle of violence.
"The boy was lying on the ground bleeding," a member of the rescue services told the Haaretz newspaper. "The bus driver was conscious and hysterical. The entire bus was destroyed; it was a horrifying sight."
...

JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem officials on Monday gave preliminary approval for the building of 942 new apartments in a Jewish development in the city's contested eastern sector, threatening to create new friction ahead of the Israeli president's White House visit.
Although it would take years before construction starts, the project in the neighborhood of Gilo will likely infuriate the Palestinians at an especially delicate diplomatic moment. Israeli President Shimon Peres is scheduled to meet Tuesday with President Barack Obama to explore ways to jump-start stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
...

JERUSALEM -- A survey released today finds young Israelis are moving to the right politically, as peace talks with the Palestinians remain stalled and the Middle East erupts around them.
The study finds that 60 percent of Jewish teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 prefer "strong" leaders to the rule of law. It also finds that in cases where state security and democratic values conflict, 70 percent of teenagers believe security should come first.
Ariel Schalit, AP
Israeli settlers and their supporters wave Israeli flags March 13 in Tel Aviv as they protest the killing of five m...

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian was shot and wounded by Israeli police Friday after he injured a soldier in the West Bank, police said, the latest incident amid a spike in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the Palestinian attacked an Israeli soldier with a stone at a bus stop early Friday, inflicting a serious head wound. Police who arrived at the scene shot and wounded the Palestinian.
Both men were treated at the scene and then evacuated to an Israeli hospital, Rosenfeld said.
A Palestinian security official in the West Bank identified the wounde...

JERUSALEM -- Israeli aircraft struck the Gaza Strip on Thursday in response to militant rocket and mortar attacks, stoking concerns that a grave new round of hostilities will fill the vacuum left by an impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Two years of relative calm have been unraveling in recent weeks with acts of violence against Israelis -- including a deadly bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday that killed an unidentified female British tourist -- and Israeli reprisals against Gaza militants, which in one case killed four Palestinian civilians.
Militants operating near the Israeli bor...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli military strike aimed at Palestinian militants missed its target Tuesday, killing three children and their uncle and wounding 13 other family members as they played soccer in their backyard in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
Adel Hana, AP
Palestinians carry a body to the morgue of Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday after an Israeli strike at a house east of Gaza City.
The attack, launched in response to repeated rocket fire toward Israel, dramatically escalated a recent round of simmering violence with Palestinian militants and t...

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Israeli commandos boarded and seized a Liberian-flagged ship that Israel says was carrying "tons" of weapons from Syria to Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the weapons originated in Iran and were on their way to Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.
"'We are currently collecting information, and the one thing that is certain is that these weapons are from Iran with a relay station in Syria," Netanyahu said. "It is our right and duty to stop the smuggling of these weapons."
Israeli naval officials said they found several anti-ship mis...

There was an odd man out last September at the White House, when President Barack Obama gathered emotional Middle East leaders for an ambitious if ill-fated push for a new peace process.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made heartfelt promises to work together for the sake of their peoples, while King Abdullah of Jordan expressed the dramatic urgency gripping a region whose frustrations over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "feed hatred and ignite wars."
And Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak? He offered logistics.
Tim Sloan, A...

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian foreign minister said today he will ask the United Nations to recognize an independent Palestinian state next September.
The announcement comes after Chile became the latest in a series of Latin American nations to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Riad Malki said he hoped to gain recognition from other countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. "In the Caribbean there are 12 small states," he said. "But these countries have the same vote that China has in the U.N. General Assembly."
Bebeto Matthews, AP
Riad Malki, the Palest...

JERUSALEM -- Israeli bulldozers demolished a vacant hotel in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem on Sunday, clearing the way for a new Jewish housing development that has drawn heavy Palestinian and American condemnations.
The planned construction, combined with a flare-up in Israeli-Palestinian violence, bodes poorly for a new U.S. attempt to restart peace talks later this week. The Palestinians accused Israel of "playing with fire" and undermining peace efforts.
The dispute over east Jerusalem is the most explosive issue in Israeli-Palestinian peace making. The conflicting claims to the...